A Pearl on the Necklace of Life.

Sunday evening, our last day in Nairobi before going to the temple, we had a wonderful testimony meeting. Pres. and Sister B. were there and added to the joy.

Each person going to the temple from Busia, of every age, had a chance to share their thoughts on the Savior and the temple. The Branch President said, when we first started the Busia branch 15 months ago, we were crawling. Then we learned to walk… and run… and now we are FLYING! None of them had ever been on an airplane before. Another brother spoke of how they joined the church in 1992 and had spent 18 years preparing to go to the temple. I was surprised to learn that each of the brothers had spent time in Nairobi as Branch President or bishop’s counselor before work transferred them to Busia.

Pres. O.shared a story of how when he was new in the church, a missionary couple had spoken. They said, when you die, your family who has passed on will all come and greet you. They will say, “Did you perform the saving ordinances for me?” If you say yes, there will be great rejoicing. If no, they will sigh, and look down, and say, “I hope my next relative will think of me.” This had great impact on him as he had deep love for his grandmother, Salome. She was the one who found his wife. She was the one who, when the new wife had to wash clothes for not only Pres. O, but also his 6 or 8 brothers, and got frustrated and started walking away, Salome was the one who went after her and whispered sweet words and got her to come back. So he was eager to do Salome’s saving ordinances.

Brother F. said that the Sunday before, Barbara from Uganda had been visiting their branch. She said, “Are you really ready to go to the temple? Fully committed to live all the covenants you’ve made?” She said when she came back from the temple, after a bit, her son became rebellious. He was sent home from several schools. She’d paid the year of school fees, but they were left behind as she had to pay again and again in the new schools. She wondered why she had to leave all this money behind and why this was happening. Then she found the reason. She had stopped paying her tithes after she went to the temple. She repented and made it right, and after a time, the son’s behavior changed and he was able to stay in the same school for the year. She said, it’s not too late to change your mind and not go. So don’t go unless you are truly committed to keeping the covenants you make.

Glory and Robinson spoke of their struggles and efforts to get the documents needed to send in their mission papers. It was a miracle that they went through as fast as they did. On Friday we learned they’d been assigned and would not only be sealed to their parents, but also take out their own endowments. They were so happy.

As we finished the testimony meeting, Jane and the family from Eldoret arrived. I am so impressed with Jane. She had never been out of her local area. She is a single mother, a farmer from deep in the country. Her Branch President took her to the bus station and put her on the bus for the eight hour ride to Nairobi. There Victor collected her and brought her to the guest house. She looked dazed, but determined and delighted. Here is Jane at the temple.

The trip to Johannesburg was a bit like a three ring circus—exciting, eventful, and in need of great orchestration. Up at 4am. Airport by 5:30. Plane took off about 7am. We had to shepherd our flock through ticketing, baggage check in, immigration and to the gate. I only lost Jane once. “After you go through the Kenyan immigration (I had to go through the foreign line) stop and wait for me.” We did our thing with the paperwork and passed through. No Jane. Akkk! We’re not even out of Kenya and I’ve lost her! I raced up the steps. No Jane. I looked down the busy, confusing concourses. No Jane. I instructed the Achimba family to stay put and if Jane showed up, keep her there and then I searched down the concourses. No Jane. But… she saw me and came back to the flock. Phew.

Off to the gate… with 17 people trailing. Tom and I took head and tail of the line and that seemed to work. We had explained about airplanes, but I think the take offs and landings were a bit uncomfortable for our friends. Again, we deplaned and tackled immigration and baggage claim and found our transport. Johannesburg is beautiful and the weather was lovely. The Patron Housing was welcoming and quite nice. Sister Taylor explained about the food provided, the rooms, and went into the necessary detail about flush toilets and hot and cold running water. After a short time Jane was skilled in using the elevator and the key card to get to her room. It was so fun to see the learning curve! We had a chance to wander the beautiful grounds and gardens. The first afternoon we wandered into the “White house” which we learned housed the area presidency and got invited to visit with a member of the area presidency and his wife. We went to meet one of the couples who works in the area office and ended up meeting so many wonderful, fantastic, warm, friendly missionary couples. It became one of the highlights of our time there. We met several of the public affairs people and talked shop—articles to put in the Liahona and on the SE Africa area website.

In the mornings, the gardens were a wonderful place to read scriptures. Tuesday they went to the family history center and used the computers to put in their genealogy. At 1 pm they went to the temple. (Mom, the agapanthis was blooming all over the place.)They were so excited! They wanted to do everything right. After, I asked one of the sisters, “What did you like about the temple?” She said, “It was so reverent and peaceful and beautiful. And I loved making covenants with my God.” That evening families were sealed together for time and all eternity. Words can’t express the wonder of seeing these innocent children dressed in white coming to be sealed as a family forever. One couple had 6 deceased children sealed to them.
I thought we would have some spare time as the mornings were not scheduled and we didn’t go to the temple until about 2. I hoped we might see a tiny bit of South Africa. However, time was taken up with getting things from the distribution center and with the family history center. Elder Fox spent two hours there and became the resident expert. The volunteer was not a member and so couldn’t help with all the work that needed doing. But we got names printed off, and the family members did the saving ordinances. Pres O just beamed as he and his wife did the ordinances for Salome and her husband.

The recommendation was that the sisters fix the large meal midday and have sandwiches or something quick for dinner as we often didn’t get out of the temple until past 7:30. However, sandwiches aren’t a meal, I guess. We did do sandwiches the very first meal-- at about 3pm. We had hot meals for every meal and they were so good at taking care of us. We thought maybe we’d have cold cereal in our room, but no. Toast and “tea” (hot chocolate) would be waiting for us, or an egg, or apple. Lunch was stew, ugali or rice, and vegetables…. As was dinner. Wednesday about 8:30pm, we did claim tiredness and take bread to our room for sandwiches. Thursday we did not, and ended up eating about 10pm. Elder Fox was an excellent role model. The women cooked, and he and the men went into the kitchen to clean up. That is quite a change from African culture to Church culture—have men helping clean up in the kitchen! One day, the lunch took too long to prepare. Faced with the choice of lunch or temple, they all fasted and just went to the temple. That was the day they ate at 10pm.

That was the day Elder Fox and I went to MCDONALDS! The public affairs couple took pity on us and took us to McDonalds. It was like the USA. Sigh. Just a small taste of the USA, but I enjoyed it. It seemed each day we visited with some of the couple missionaries there. Ah, it was so nice to talk to them, learn where they came from, learn what they do, connect. We found one was childhood neighbor to the mission president’s wife. Another spent time as mission president to the Vickerys who were in the MTC with us. She volunteered to watch the two under 12 children so all the rest of us could go to the temple. The couples just tucked us under their wings and loved us.

The whole temple experience was precious! We loved being there and seeing these wonderful people from Kenya learn and grow. Even the journey back to Kenya was handled with much more confidence by the members. Ticketing? Immigration? Gate number? Yeah, been there. Done that.—although Johannesburg has a much larger airport. They were all reluctant to leave the temple knowing they will likely never see it again. On the plane, mid-flight, Jane popped her head around the seats and sang us a hymn, smiled, and disappeared again.

We arrived back in Kenya, awaited transport, and arrived back at the couples flat about 9pm. Ah. A good trip.